The process of localization involves adapting services, content and products to a specific locality or regional market. It not only ensures adherence to local languages, but also to local culture, political and legal policies. In today’s world of globalized markets, localization and translation services play a pivotal role in gathering new customer bases across the globe. The localization sector has seen a rapid growth due more and more businesses operating on off-shore markets. The net worth rose from $31 billion in 2011 to $40 billion in 2016. It is estimated to reach $45 billion by 2020.
With customers now accessible in remote alien linguistic pockets of the world, Localization services enable businesses to tap into otherwise unrecognized markets. For example in the videogame industry, due to the lack of multiple language options in games, racing games are more popular in the Middle-East due to their simplicity of interface. The availability of products and services in native languages show an increase in customer reserves of businesses. Localization industry is diversifying itself with newer technologies and approaches such as cloud based assistance to keep in pace with the expanding industrial sectors across the world.
Approach to localization
94% of multinational companies are planning to increase their localization budget in 2018. As translation and localization are tedious activities most businesses choose to outsource the job to Localization service providers. Companies these days often need to choose between localization and standardization. If the usage of the product or service is relatively simple and uniform then standardization is ideal strategy. But for diverse products like online retail services, videogames, search engines and social media platforms localizing most certainly leads to higher sales. Most multinational companies are constantly increasing their market year after year. This year is no different; one can expect a steady in localization services across the industry. Most Localization service providers now provide cloud-based services for smoother communication and translations. The market is becoming extremely competitive as more and more Localization service providers are utilizing automated software and database for their services. Thus a booming demand in this sector is to be expected. Inc. Magazine states the localization industry as one of the top industries for starting a business.
The upcoming trends in the language industry
When a company plans its global growth it situates its products in rapidly developing nations. Asian and African markets have always shown a steady growth in customer base. Hence, it is a must for companies to keep learning newer languages. Localization services now need to hone their technology to incorporate SEO in regional languages. Experts suggest that localized video content will become even more popular in 2018. The conflict of subtitling vs. dubbing still rages on in 2018. But recent studies show that viewers form reading habits while watching videos. Most viewers prefer to listen to the original audio with subtitles as they are watching a video. Online courses and E-learning services will continue to witness a steady rise in demands as they continue to localize their services across various languages. In spite of cloud based features and advancement in database management technologies, human translation is still the most trending practice in 2018 as machines cannot grasp context or choose situation specific words.
